Current at 11/6/2011 (Online waypoint URL) You have already found this cache! Master Index    Nearest Caches Spirit Rock by ertyu (2/2.5) N50° 33.654  W96° 38.059 (WGS84) UTM  14U   E 667552  N 5603669 Use waypoint: GCYK6B Size: Regular    Hidden on 9/30/2006 In Manitoba, Canada Difficulty:     Terrain:                         A short hike along a nice trail at grand beach. The cache is hidden around the half way point, just off the trail near a scenic lookout. According to legend, local Native people would leave offerings of cloth, food or tobacoo on this rock before journeying out onto the lake. By thus appeasing the spirits of the lake, they would be assured fair winds while travelling on these often treacherous waters. Another legend suggests that the offerings were to placate a spirit who would otherwise attack swimmers and pull them under. Some believe that their cries for help can still be heard beneath the water. There is a FTF prize of a real diamond. Logging Etiquette: Geocache hiders sometimes go through a great deal of planning to place their caches. As a result, they'd like to hear your feedback on whether you liked or disliked any aspect of the hide, or if you feel that some cache maintenance is required. Blank, single word, acronym, or emoticon logs may be easier when you have a lot of caches to log, but it doesn't tell the hider or other finders anything about your adventure (or lack thereof) in finding the cache. Please keep this in mind when entering your log.

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8/17/2008 by Kabuthunk
WOOH! Managed to snag a geocache while at Grand Beach. My wife, my best friend, and I planned to head to Grand Beach this weekend. Ok, well... mainly it was probably just me who was all wanting to hit up a beach, and they were moreso along for general entertainment, and for my sake. I'm more of the outdoors type, while they're more of the 'stay in the city if there's a choice' type. But hey... they both had fun, so it's all good .

Anyway, I was contemplating which caches to tackle at Grand Beach, but for a day trip in which we would be there for a total of maybe 4 or 5 hours, that's not exactly enough time to do a full like... 15km walk to circle the entire everything to get them all. Well... I could see myself doing that, but I also wanted to spend a lot of time swimming, and y'know... hanging out with my wife and best friend, instead of ditching them .

Hence, when we arrived, this was the closest cache to where we were. We set up our towels on the West Beach, away from the busy boardwalk area, and sorta a bit closerish to the dividing point of the East and West beaches. It was quieter there, and we had plenty of room to set up. After about 2 hours of frolicking in the water and playing in the sand (I may be 28, but I still likes digging pits in the sand and whatnot), my best friend and I decided to go for a walk to the cache. My wife opted to stay behind, watch our stuff, and read a book.

As we walked down the boardwalk, I was definitely glad we camped out further away. Noisy, busy, and packed. And the noise didn't go away when we got to the grassy area either... that restaurant or whatever it is was blasting music ridiculously loudly. Don't know if there was a live band or something, but if I could barely hear my friend when we were at the trail, I can only imagine how loud it must be INSIDE that place! Thankfully, the volume dropped pretty quickly once we got into the trees.

In the trees however, was mosquitoes. We both were wearing nothing but swim trunks, so we were both ripe for the picking. I didn't mind it as much, but my friend being the city type... methinks I'll have to owe him a favour or two if I were to try to get him to go after another forest cache . We walked the full trail, at which point I discovered something...

This place would be AWESOME to bike down! Large mental note... bring my mountain bike with me next time I'm at Grand Beach. The rocks and trail would be great to bike through .

That aside, we continued our walk until we got around the 'furthest' bend and started getting nearer to the coordinates. We could actually still hear the music from that restaurant/whatever it is from the furthest possible point away, but at least it was pretty quiet. At 20 meters to the cache, I found a place to enter the forest.

Holy crap, the mosquitoes in there are ravenous! With most of my skin exposed, I couldn't stay for long! Luckly, I found the cache within a few moments of getting close to the coordinates . Added bonus, it was plenty big enough to drop both the Geet Bug TB and geocoin inside of. Clamping it shut again, I bolted out of the trees with a massive swarm of mosquitoes following me. My friend brushed them off as best he could, and we motored out of there. Following the rest of the path (since it would be shorter to continue than go back), I found that I want to bike down that path even more, and then we finally reached the 'connection' point where we could get to the beach again.

Thanks for the awesome cache. A bit mosquitoey, but the path itself was well worth it . A beautiful day out (+32), no clouds, and lotsa swimming... definitely a good way to end a weekend .

Took: Nothing
Left: Logbook entry, Geek Bug TB, Cape Breton geocoin, and chainmail ball